However, I do have a few questions. 1) does the efibootmgr need to be installed via windows or can it be maintained from Gentoo? I already did install it via windows, but if possible it would be nice have everything accessible on the OS I actually use.

Second, why isn't this in the handbook? This should be at least as common as using grub2. Is it simply a lack of anyone writing it?

EDIT: It appears that this issue is solved by simply fooling the computer into booting from rEFInd by copying into the place of what it was expecting. Not exactly what I would call an ideal solution._________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Last edited by The Doctor on Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:55 am; edited 1 time in total

with my hybrid bios/uefi efibootmgr did not work..
the wiki article was the end product of trying many ways to get a nice dual boot and finding this one in the last place I looked.
uefi bible to me is http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/secureboot.html The author is also known as srs5694 here in the forum._________________Defund the FCC.

Thanks I look into that. Unfortunately, I need to get some sleep and sit through an exam tomorrow so I probably won't get back to this too soon._________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

AFAIK, efibootmgr is a Linux-only program, so the claim that you installed it in Windows is suspect. My hunch is that you meant you did something else in Windows, like install a boot manager (rEFInd, GRUB, etc.) and register it via the Windows "bcdedit" command.

Broadly speaking, you should be able to manage your EFI boot loaders in Linux via efibootmgr. In practice, there are a number of problems with this, caused by EFI bugs, efibootmgr bugs and kernel incompatibilities, etc. These problems will shake out with time, but at the moment it's still somewhat hit-or-miss, depending on your computer, your kernel version, your efibootmgr version, etc.

You cannot do anything with efibootmgr if booted via mbr bios grub installation. "efibootmgr" is a misnomer. It is a just a little manipulation utility to handle efi loader entries, which each one of that can start up the real efi-boot-manager - like : refind, grub2-efi or gummiboot.

This typical output of efibootmgr you only get if you started a linux kernel in efi mode:

AFAIK, efibootmgr is a Linux-only program, so the claim that you installed it in Windows is suspect. My hunch is that you meant you did something else in Windows, like install a boot manager (rEFInd, GRUB, etc.) and register it via the Windows "bcdedit" command.

Indeed. I misunderstood the distinction.

Quote:

Broadly speaking, you should be able to manage your EFI boot loaders in Linux via efibootmgr. In practice, there are a number of problems with this, caused by EFI bugs, efibootmgr bugs and kernel incompatibilities, etc. These problems will shake out with time, but at the moment it's still somewhat hit-or-miss, depending on your computer, your kernel version, your efibootmgr version, etc.

At this point, it seems more miss. I have rEFInd installed, but it refuses to use it.

EDIT: At this point, I still have a few days to compile before this starts clashing with anything. Since it doesn't seem to respect my changing things, its to to move things, I guess._________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.